War Tax Resistance in Spain

Tax Resistance for Resistance Funds

War Tax Resistance (WTR) is the refusal
to collaborate with one of the worst ways in which capitalism extends
worldwide: with militarism and war, even if the spin as of late is
“humanitarian interventions” or “wars against terrorism.”

What is War Tax Resistance /
WTR?

With WTR we
are actively resisting military spending at the moment we fill out our income
tax return. At a purely technical level, this would consist of deducting from
our taxes the part that is destined to be spent for military purposes.

With WTR we
are not encouraging or promoting some sort of “a la carte taxation” as some
people believe, as though it were not being used as a tool for civil
disobedience, which is to say, to disobey and to disrupt, publicly and
collectively, a law or rule that is considered unjust, seeking to overcome
it together (in this case, military spending and militarism).

The ultimate goal of
WTR is the
elimination of armies, military research, and the military-industrial
complex, through a progressive reduction in military spending. By resisting
war taxes we show our collective refusal of military spending in particular
and militarism in general, at the same time that we are in solidarity with
other struggles taking place in our society by means of the projects we
select.

With the money that we redirect when we file our
WTR returns,
the CGT
aims to financially support concrete struggles, resistance funds, or social
projects related to anarcho-syndicalist organization and ideas. Providing
these funds that are withheld via our acts of disobedience is achieved by
carrying out social projects that do not receive subsidies, and that allow
continued working for a more just and equitable society:

Project One: Home Territory

We are women from various countries, of different nationalities and
experiences. Some have legal documents, others do not. We do domestic labor.
We have certain work conditions that make us very vulnerable. The difficult
conditions and fear function to isolate and separate us.

For this reason we have decided to struggle together, in a real challenge to
isolation and fear, as a way to make us stronger.

Domestic work sustains the life of thousands of households daily, and,
nevertheless, is invisible, undervalued labor. We want this to change and to
be included in the Régimen General, an important step in the
recognition of its value. Also that undocumented workers should have the same
rights as everyone else. We cannot forget that this work is moving out of the
hands of some women (those of Northern countries) to others (those of
Southern countries), making the problem far from disappear, but globalize.

Project Two: Antimilitarism in Paraguay

For years in Paraguay various antimilitarist groups have been working for a
demilitarized society and are supporting other struggles (peasants, human
rights, the youth movement,
etc.).

Tax Resistance this year will be dedicated to
supporting the antimilitarist movement in Paraguay and the action that War
Resisters International has prepared for the
May 15th International
Day of Conscientious Objection, which this year focuses on the
situation in Paraguay.

If you thought the “dissent = treason” equation was fun when you saw it on the
chalkboards during the last administration, you’ll love the new progressive
remake of this timeless classic.

The gist of her essay is that the ObamaCare refuseniks are not just
bad-tempered but positively seditious in their denial that the government has
the right to force its idea of a national health care plan down our throats.
The protesters might as well be the Ku Klux Klan disrupting “our new
Reconstruction” with “the descent of a vicious new Jim Crow terrorism.”

That overblown and offensive metaphor (illustrated with a still from the movie
Birth of a Nation in which a crew of Ku Kluxers are
in mid-lynch), though it forms the central thesis of the rant, isn’t even the
worst of it. (Nor is Harris-Lacewell alone with such exaggerated comparisons:
a protester put a brick through the window of a congressman’s office? — It’s
Kristallnacht all over again!)

For one thing, there’s the way Harris-Lacewell describes John Lewis, who “was
severely beaten [by police] 45 years ago when he tried to lead a group of
brave citizens across the Edmund Pettus bridge in an effort to secure voting
rights for black Americans.” Now Lewis is a congressman, and an ObamaCare
supporter. The papers quoted an unnamed colleague of Lewis as saying that a
protester was heard yelling out at Lewis: “kill the bill, then the nigger.”

Which is worse? An active, ongoing, open conspiracy by government forces to
brutally repress people trying to assert their civil rights, or an unhinged
protester yelling racist threats as a Congressman passes by? The latter
clearly! Why? “When [Lewis] is attacked by protesters, he is himself an agent
of the state. This difference is critically important; not because it changes
the fact that racism is present in both moments, but because it radically
alters the way we should understand the meaning of power, protest and race.…
John Lewis is no longer just a brave American fighting for the soul of his
country — he is an elected official. He is an embodiment of the state.”

Amazingly, Harris-Lacewell bolsters this argument with this:

I often begin my political science courses with a brief introduction to the
idea of “the state.” The state is the entity that has a monopoly on the
legitimate use of violence, force and coercion. If an individual travels to
another country and kills its citizens, we call it terrorism. If the state
does it, we call it war. If a man kills his neighbor it is murder; if the
state does it is the death penalty. If an individual takes his neighbor’s
money, it is theft; if the state does it, it is taxation.

This, mind you, is her argument for why the state is a good thing,
and those who oppose it are wicked. It has all the charm of a sermon that
begins “Satan wants to steal our souls and subject us to eternal torment to
feed the selfish glory of his own evil,” and ends, “hail Satan!”

Still, a liberal friend of mine earnestly forwarded a link to this article to
his friends, solemnly remarking: “Indeed, the Tea Partiers are dancing right
around the borderline of sedition. They’re objecting to the lawful authority
of the state.” If only they would!

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